The block, which is said to hold probable
reserves of 9.23 billion barrels of oil, was sold to Shell and Eni for $1.1bn
in 2011.
Prosecutors alleged that “fronts for President
Goodluck Jonathan” received $523m in proceeds of what they described as “smash
and grab” deal, with the Crown Prosecution Service, acting at the behest of the
Public Prosecutor for Milan, describing OPL 245 as a case of “grand
corruption”.
The court rejected an attempt by a company owned by a former Nigerian Petroleum
Resources Minister, Dan Etete, to unfreeze $85m (N16.7bn) in proceeds of the
corrupt deal for the block, according to a statement on the website of Global
Witness.
Justice
Edis of the Southwark Crown Court turned down Malabu Oil & Gas application
to discharge the freezing order, rejecting its arguments that the Crown had
failed to follow proper procedures in securing the freezing order.
“I
cannot simply assume that the Federal Government of Nigeria, which was in power
in 2011 and subsequently until 2015, rigorously defended the public interest of
the people of Nigeria in all respects. Mr. Fisher QC, who appeared for the CPS,
used the phrase ‘grand corruption’ to describe the form of corruption in which
the state itself is culpable,” the judge said.
According
to the statement, evidence from the US authorities presented to the court and
included in the judgement “shows payments following circuitous routes, which
totalled $523m, and arrived at Abubakar Aliyu, aka ‘Mr. Corruption’… Aliyu’s
companies are allegedly fronts for President Goodluck Jonathan.”
Justice
Edis said, “The suggestion from the wiretaps is that ‘Fortunato’ was implicated
and I am told that this was a reference in code (not subtle) to the former
President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan. Aliyu is said to be associated with
him and Aliyu received, in a way which was not transparent, $523m of the money
paid for the OPL 245 licence in August 2011.”
The
$85m funds were restrained at the request of the Italian authorities, who are
investigating the sale of the block by Malabu, a company allegedly secretly
owned by Etete, to the international oil companies, the statement said.
It
added that the Federal Government under Jonathan acted as a middleman in the
deal, and the court received evidence based on wiretaps that prosecutors
alleged showed that the then President, Jonathan, was directly involved.
“In
light of these allegations in a UK court, the role of the senior Nigerian
officials involved in this deal, including Goodluck Jonathan, must now be fully
investigated,” a Nigerian anti-corruption campaigner, Dotun Oloko, was quoted
as saying.
Source:
The Punch
No comments:
Post a Comment